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Please send a letter to your Senator today.  

Give Senator Hite a call anytime 614-466-8150

The Great Lakes Compact, signed in 2008, has the potential to safeguard our water supply and foster healthy, sustainable and vibrant communities for centuries to come.  HB 473 breaks that promise and allows industry virtually unlimited water while leaving little for the public and environment.

Please Call on Senator  Hite 614-466-8150 to amend Hb 473 to protect Lake Erie!

HB 473 threatens our water supply by allowing industry to withdraw over 89 million gallons in a single day, leaves our highest quality rivers unprotected,

Call Senator Hite 614-466-8150

and limits public participation in the permitting process.    

I am calling today in regard to House Bill 473, which would threaten water quality.  Please amend the bill by 

• requiring higher standards, or lower withdrawals, for our smallest and cleanest streams and rivers,
• not allowing industry to average water withdrawals over 90 days, 
• granting the public the right to appeal permitting and file grievances even if they do not live on Lake Erie.  

HB 473 will allow excess consumption of our water, leading to an increase in algae blooms, higher water treatment costs, a decreasing fish populations, declining property values, and a loss of recreational opportunities, jobs, income and revenue from tourism. I urge you to protect our water at the source by saying no to HB 473.  Thank you for taking my call and protecting Lake Erie. 

…And Thank You, for taking action.  

Customers who use 700,000 kWh/year or less, are in good standing with their current utility, have no existing long-term purchase contracts with any utility, and who are not on a Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) are eligible to participate. City Manager Dohoney’s decision will save the estimated 52,400 eligible customers $133/year off their electric bills. The RFP also included the conventional generation option, and Cincinnati chose to contract with the green option, which is $23/year cheaper than the conventional option! The switch is expected to take place in June 2012.

Click here to learn what City Manager Dohoney has to say about this exciting progress in clean energy and what Cincinnati’s next steps are.

Cincinnati is setting a positive example for its residents, the state of Ohio, and the entire country. A city as large as Cincinnati making the necessary strides to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels is tremendous. We will work to help other cities accomplish this goal – but we need your help! Be sure to tell your Cincinnati friends and families congrats on this exciting news!

Questions? Email Natalie Fox or call (614) 461-0734 x 301.

We quickly mobilized and outlined a campaign, with the goal of diverting the pipeline away from the wetlands.  After reaching out to the OSU administration and helping to sway them to deny Columbia Gas’s request for an easement, we intervened in the case in front of the Ohio Power Siting Board, which is the body that oversees, among other things, natural gas pipelines.  Our intrepid attorney, Rick Sahli, secured a settlement that utilized an alternative route that did not directly impact the Wetlands.

The Earth Day clean up was the perfect venue to celebrate this victory and remind ourselves of just how special the Wetlands are.  Dr. Bill Mitsch, world-renowned wetlands expert and founder of the OSU Wetlands Research Park, gave a wonderful address on the Wetland’s importance and discussed how much the Sierra Club’s work protecting them meant to everyone involved with the Wetlands.  The OSU Wetland Research Park inducted us as a lifetime honorary in the Friends of Buckeye Swamp, presenting us with a certificate and putting the Sierra Club’s name on a permanent plaque within the Wetlands.  Furthermore, Dr. Mitsch announced that they would provide funding to send Ohio Chapter members and staff to the upcoming Ecosummit conference.

This recognition was unexpected but incredibly thoughtful and gracious.  Wins are difficult to come by these days, so we must savor them when we achieve them.  This victory would not have occurred without the support of local members and residents, who unabashedly voiced their disapproval of the pipeline’s planned location.  Hopefully the Wetlands will not be jeopardized again in the future, or viewed as the path of least resistance for future projects – I think we proved this is not the case.  Please give yourself a pat on the back for this victory, as it reminds one of exactly why many of us became involved with Sierra Club in the first place.  And if you have the opportunity to visit the OSU Wetlands, please take advantage of it.

“Ohioan’s have the right to know about the backroom deals being made to bring fracking into our State parks,” said Jed Thorp, Manager of the Sierra Club’s Ohio Chapter.  “The reckless natural gas industry has no place fracking on some of our state’s most beautiful public lands.”

In September 2011, House Bill 133 opened Ohio’s state parks to oil and gas fracking.  This legislation also established a centralized program for nominating all state lands for drilling through a newly created “Oil and Gas Leasing Commission” subject to lease terms designed to protect environmental quality.

“The mission of the Department of Natural Resources is to provide oversight of state forests and parks in Ohio,” said Bob Kyle Forest and Public Lands Committee Co-Chair. “HB 133 violates this trust for future generations by allowing irrevocable surface and mineral impacts. Ohioans have lost faith in the mission of ODNR and view its actions as supporting the oil and gas industry rather than Ohio citizens who depend on public lands for recreation and  environmental services”.  After six months, ODNR has yet to make records available or to provide explanation as to why they have not done so.

The lawsuit, filed this morning in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, cites multiple requests by the Sierra Club – including written and certified mail requests – to obtain public records related to ODNR’s oil and gas leasing guidelines.  Hopefully Sierra Club’s actions will shed light on to ODNR’s plans for fracking our state parks, because Sierra Club is not the only public interest groups that is being ignored.

Explore, Enjoy, and Protect!

Tell Governor Kasich to help make Ohio cleaner and greener and fully allocate Clean Ohio Funding!

My electric bill is usually around $28/month, but the calculator revealed the actual cost of my electricity is $199/month. Please contact Natalie Fox with questions or for more information.

Do you care about clean water?  

Find out how you can help.  

Over the past two years we have raised over $200,000 for the Ohio Chapter Clean Water Campaign.  In order to make 2012 a success we need your support.  Aveda is a corporation with a conscious and every April they raise millions of dollars for clean water across the globe.  If you are going to donate to the Sierra Club Foundation this year please consider making your donation through an Aveda Salon or Institute. By attending an event not only will you be making a difference for the environment but you will also receive a great service and have a great time.

Make a difference and visit an Aveda salon or institute today!

Over the past two years the clean water campaign has generated tens of thousands of comments, spent thousands of hours cleaning streams, trained hundreds of individuals about water quality issues, and protected our waterways thru litigation.  Your support is vital to the ongoing efforts of the Clean Water Campaign.  Together we can make our water beautiful again.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for news and analysis, and information on how YOU can make YOUR voice heard on this important piece of legislation.